Well, yesterday I got the check-in notification for my flight to Tokyo which made me think, wait: did I book a hotel?
Nope. I did not. I checked for vacancies in the hostels with private rooms that I like (&and hostels) since their rooms usually cost around $50 a night, but unfortunately none of their locations had availability for Saturday!
I settled on one of many APA hotel locations. The price seems to range from $50/night to $100/night depending on the day of the week. This is certainly much more affordable compared to IHG's cheapest hotel room, at the IC in Yokohama for $250/night. Osaka truly is much more affordable than Tokyo, as next week I'll be staying for 2 weeks at a Holiday Inn Express in downtown Osaka for around $110/night, which isn't too bad since I'll be getting free breakfast everyday.
Tokyo really doesn't have any sub-$150/night options from the major international hotel chains, which is a shame. I plan to spend May in Tokyo and for that I will be renting a serviced apartment for 1 month. I estimate it'll cost around 160,000-220,000 JPY for the month, which is cheaper than even a small private room in a hostel.
Interested in learning more about the hotel room I ended up staying at? I'll post a hotel review soon.